Portable devices that link users to communication services are popular and widespread. For example, some devices use the infrared data association protocol (IrDA) for line-of-sight data transfers. In addition, other devices use wireless fidelity (IEEE 802.11a and 802.11b wireless networking) or Wi-Fi, Bluetooth®, etc. to support wireless data transfers using a radio-frequency (RF) link. Bluetooth® is the registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
Bluetooth® is particularly useful for data transfers between mobile-computing devices, local-area network (LAN) interfaces, and Internet-service provider (ISP) wireless-access points. Bluetooth® uses a number of RF channels between 2.40 and 2.48 GHz to communicate data. Since Bluetooth® uses a RF-transmission medium, communicating devices do not need to be in the line-of-sight of each other's infrared beam. Bluetooth® also frequency hops. That is, Bluetooth® changes frequencies over a thousand times a second using nearly eighty channels within the 2.40 and 2.48 GHz frequency range. Consequently, even though Bluetooth® shares this frequency range with cordless phones, baby monitors, etc., data transmission disruptions are negligible.
Recent advances in a host of technologies have led to the development of mobile-computing devices that rival the processing power of desktop personal computers. One of the driving forces behind the popularity of mobile-computing devices is the ability to use information accessible to the mobile-computing device via the Internet and other networks from anywhere within the reach of a wireless communication-service provider or a wireless device.
The Internet is a world-wide collection of networks and gateways that use the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high-speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers consisting of thousands of commercial, government, educational, and other computer systems that route data packets from node to node across the various networks.
The World Wide Web or web refers to the total set of interlinked hypertext documents residing on hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) servers all around the world. Documents on the web, called pages or web pages, are written in hypertext mark-up language (HTML) identified by uniform-resource locators (URLs) that identify the particular machine and pathname by which a file can be accessed and transmitted from node to node to the end user using HTTP. HTML-based pages contain standard text as well as formatting codes that indicate how the page should be displayed. A web site is a related group of these documents and associated files, scripts, sub-procedures, databases, etc. that are provided by an HTTP server coupled to one of the various networks.
Users of mobile-computing devices use an application program generally called a “browser” and a communication link to the Internet to access a web site. Browsers are software applications that locate, request, receive, and display content stored within a specific device coupled to the Internet. Popular browsers for laptop and desktop computing devices are graphical browsers. Graphical browsers display graphics including text. Browsers for mobile-computing devices generally display text information, although more recent communication services provide more data rich media such as moving pictures and sound.
Web browsers also enable a user to navigate the Internet, i.e., view HTML files stored on a web-connected device, view data stored on another network, access data stored on a user's computing device, or access data on other data-storage devices. The user can navigate the Internet by entering a URL in an address-entry field provided by the browser or selecting a “link” embedded in a displayed representation of an HTML file. The user can navigate to network-coupled devices by entering appropriate paths in the address-entry field. Once the user has found a folder or file-of-interest, the user can enter a command to view the contents of the folder or open the file-of-interest. When the file-of-interest is a HTML file, the browser displays the file like any other web page. When the file-of-interest is associated with an application program (e.g., a spreadsheet file generated and stored using a particular spreadsheet application program), the mobile-computing device can be configured to open the file with the appropriate application program when the application program is found on the remote-computing device.
The user of a mobile-computing device can download a web page or access other information by locating a file stored on a device connected to the web. Some web pages are configured to coordinate the transfer of a file from an Internet coupled data-storage facility to the mobile-computing device. However, methods for enabling mobile-computing devices to print a file when the computing device is remotely located are problematic.
A first problem concerns how to identify local printers that may be used by a remote user. A second problem concerns how to forward data from a mobile-computing device in a format that is recognizable by the specific printer. To print information from a mobile-computing device, the device must either store or locate a driver that controls the specific printer that the user would like to use. A driver is a software program that translates generic commands typically generated by one or more application programs into device-specific commands understood by the printing device.